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The official launch of York Region’s own radio station on Wednesday could hardly have been more timely, as the region was hit with heavy snowfall.

A bad weather day when Mother Nature was busy creating traffic havoc gave the weather/traffic/news team at FM105.9 The Region its first big test, challenging staff to provide up-to-the-minute local weather and traffic updates to the well over 1 million people who call York Region home.

Starting at 6 a.m., news anchors Kiran Patel-Shah and Martha O’Neill were offering that audience information for the rush-hour commute across a region spanning more than 1,760 square kilometres and nine municipalities, from Markham and Vaughan in the south, up to Georgina and Lake Simcoe.

“Traffic and weather is the focus of our operation,” said program director Mike Atom, who set up the station’s York Region-focused traffic and weather systems. He was en route through the snow storm to various sites for a live broadcast of the launch.

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“There has been a lot of construction and growth in the region, and people were not able to find out information to get home in an expedient fashion,” he explained.

The station has been in the works for three years. President Pip Bola and general manager Debra McLaughlin, both seasoned broadcast consultants, conducted in-depth research and led focus groups to find out what York listeners wanted from a regional station.

“The region is very distinct. The people who live here don’t associate themselves with the ‘416,’ and they don’t identify themselves as Torontonians,” said McLaughlin, who is working on launching a similar station in Mississauga.

York Region has a very young and diverse market, McLaughlin said, and the fact that many in suburbia spend a lot of time in their cars means there is a huge need for reliable local commuting information.

“Greater Toronto is huge. You may have snow in one part, but not in another. Other newscasts fit the general GTA, but it is a huge market and it is hard to be all things to all people,” she explained.

While the station will broadcast international and national news along with adult contemporary music, it plans to dedicate one-third of its newscast to news and events in York Region, from crime to education and local politics.

“The region is growing faster than its infrastructure. We need a common meeting place for people to integrate and connect with the community,” said McLaughlin. “We are portable. We are instantaneous.”

To meet the needs of its culturally diverse audience, the station is also producing its own evening ethnic programming in Mandarin, Cantonese, Tamil/Tanglish, Urdu and Arabic. Producers of those programs also contribute to the main newscast during the day.

As part of its community-building effort, the station will air a weekly show, Saturday Night High, to broadcast news from schools in the region, in hopes of drawing a young audience, and a regular daily segment called The Region Gives Back, to profile local charities and their events.

“It just feels like York Region, where everybody is working together and having a great time and it doesn’t matter where you come from,” Atom said.

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